Plane crash off Molokai, Hawaii claims the life of Hawaii Health Director

This morning CBS Morning News and the NBC Today Show reported a single-engine plane crash that killed a "high ranking" Hawaii state government official. The official was named in the report.

I have located a report of the air accident reported by the Honolulu Star-Advertiser here:

https://www.staradvertiser.com/news/breaking/20131211_Small_aircraft_cra...

By Star-Advertiser staff POSTED: 04:36 p.m. HST, Dec 11, 2013
LAST UPDATED: 09:17 p.m. HST, Dec 11, 2013

Here are quotes from the story:

State Health Department Director Loretta Fuddy died in a Makani Kai commuter airplane crash this afternoon off Kalaupapa in which eight other people -- including the pilot -- survived.

Fuddy's death was confirmed to the Star-Advertiser by several sources.

Sometime before 4 p.m., a Honolulu-bound Cessna Grand Caravan carrying eight passengers and the pilot crashed about a half-mile off Molokai's north shore after taking off from Kalaupapa, officials said.

Richard Schuman, president of Makani Kai, said a pilot flying over the crash site about half-mile offshore observed eight passengers in the water with life vests, he said.

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Fuddy became acting health director in January, after the governor's original nominee, Dr. Neal Palafox, withdrew his name at Abercrombie's request in January 2011. Just after being appointed and confirmed as director, Fuddy was involved in the release of President Barack Obama's birth certificate, at the president's request, in April 2011.

Besides Fuddy, Health Department Deputy Director Keith Yamamoto was also on board.

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End quotes

The Hawaii State Department of Health holds the birth certificate registry for all births in Hawaii. The registry should include the original birth certificate of Barack Hussein Obama.

There were a few people who were engaged in a protracted argument regarding the birth history of Barack Hussein Obama. The White House eventually requested that the state of Hawaii release a copy of the President's birth certificate.

Print media are claiming that Fuddy was involved with the certification of the copy of the birth certificate. The online copy of the certificate that I found has a different name signed on the copy (apparently signed by Alvin T. Onaka, PhD, "state registrar").

Initial reports were that all survived the air accident but later reports indicated that Director Huddy had died in the accident. There were no specifics of the accident reported in the online press.

Condolences to the family of administrator Fuddy, those involved at the Hawaii Health Department, and those at the airline involved.